Background: At present, China has approximately 20 million migrant school-aged children accompanying their parents in relocating to the cities. However, very little is known about them. Using a resilience framework, the present study attempted to examine the psychosocial factors affecting their life satisfaction in Shanghai, China.
Methods: A total of 625 migrant children were recruited from 10 schools in Shanghai through a cross-sectional survey design using multi-stage cluster sampling method. The questionnaire included measures of life satisfaction, self-esteem, social support, relationships at school and the parent—child and peer relationships.
Results: Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to explore the relative effects of different relationship domains, self-esteem and social support on the life satisfaction of migrant children. The results suggested that parent—child and peer relationships significantly influenced the life satisfaction of children of migrant workers. Relationships in school did not exert such effect. Both social support and self-esteem had significant effects on the life satisfaction of migrant children.
Conclusions: Relationship factors, social support and self-esteem are critical factors affecting the life satisfaction of migrant children. The findings and implications were discussed in relation to developmental and migration-related issues and the social contexts of the lives of children of migrant workers in Shanghai, China.
Aksel, S., Gun, Z., Irmak, T.Y. & Cengelci, B. ( 2007) Migration and psychological status of adolescents in Turkey . Adolescence, 42, 589-602.
2.
Arnold, E.M., Walsh, A.K., Oldham, M.S. & Rapp, C.A. ( 2007) Strengths-based case management: Implementation with high-risk youth. Families in Society, 88(1), 86-94.
3.
Bai, W.F. & Shu, N. ( 2008) An overview of sociological studies of migrant children in China. Journal of Education Studies, 5, 44-48.
4.
Bell, C.C. & Suggs, H. ( 1998) Using sports to strengthen resiliency in children. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics in North America, 7, 859-865.
5.
Borrego, J., Urquiza, A.J., Rasmussen, R.A. & Zebell, N. ( 1999) Parent-child interaction therapy with a family at high-risk for physical abuse. Child Maltreatment, 4, 331-342.
6.
Bukowski, W.M., Hoza, B. & Boivin, M. ( 1994) Measuring friendship quality during pre- and early adolescence: The development and psychometric properties of the Friendship Qualities Scale . Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 11, 471-484.
7.
Chang, L., Schwartz, D., Dodge, K. & McBride-Chang, C. ( 2003) Harsh parenting in relation to child emotion regulation and aggression. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 598-606.
8.
China State Council (2004) Gazette of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. People’s Republic of China, April 2004. www.china.org.cn/e-gongbao/gazette
9.
China State Council Research Office (2006) Report on Investigation of Chinese Migrant Workers. Beijing : China Yanshi Publishing House.
10.
Costigan, C.L. & Dokis, D. ( 2006) Relations between parent-child acculturation differences and adjustment within immigrant Chinese families. Child Development , 77, 1252-1267.
11.
Diener, E., Emmons, R.A., Larsen, R.J. & Griffin S. ( 1985) The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.
12.
Diener, E. ( 2000) Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34-43.
13.
Dixson, M.D., Fair, S. & Bermes, E. ( 2004) An instrument to investigate expectations about experiences of the parent-child relationship: The Parent-Child Relationship Inventory . Paper presented at the National Communication Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.
14.
Dixson, M.D. ( 1995) Models and perspectives of parent-child communication . In Parents, Children and Communication: Frontiers of Theory and Research (eds. T.J. Socha & G. Stamp). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
15.
Duan, C.R. & Liang, H. ( 2004) Conditions of migrant children in China. Population Research, 2004 (01), 54-60.
16.
Erikson, E.H. ( 1968) Identity, Youth and Crisis. New York : W.W. Northon.
17.
Farver, J.M., Narang, S.K. & Bhadha, B.R. ( 2002) East meets West: Ethnic identity, acculturation and conflict in Asian Indian families. Journal of Family Psychology, 16, 338-350.
18.
Finkelstein, D.M., Kubzansky, L.D., Capitman, J. & Goodman, E. ( 2007) Socioeconomic differences in adolescent stress: The role of psychological resources. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40, 127-134.
19.
Fleisher B.M. & Yang D.T. ( 2003) Labour law and regulations in China. China Economic Review, 14, 426-433.
20.
Grotberg, E.H. ( 2003) Resilience for Today: Gaining Strength from Adversity . Westport, CN: Praeger Publishers .
21.
Guo, F. ( 2002) School attendance of migrant children in Beijing, China: A multivariate analysis. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal , 1, 357-374.
22.
Guo, Z.Q. ( 2007) The use of anti-discriminatory practice of social work for improving migrant children’s mental health. Journal of Southern Yangtze University (Humanities & Social Sciences Edition) , 6, 35-38.
23.
Gu, W.Y. ( 2006) An analysis of psychological issues of children of migrant workers. Educational Data, 31, 84-85.
24.
Hankin, B.J. ( 2005) Adolescent depression: Description, causes and interventions . Epilepsy and Behavior, 8, 102-114.
25.
Harker, K. ( 2001) Immigrant generation, assimilation, and adolescent psychological well-being. Social Forces, 79, 969-1004.
26.
Hughes, J.N., Luo, W., Kwok, O.M. & Loyd, L.Y. ( 2008) Teacher-student support, effortful engagement, and achievement: A three-year longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology , 100, 1-14.
27.
Iredale, R., Bilik, N., Su, W., Guo, F. & Hoy, C. ( 2001) Contemporary Minority Migration, Education and Ethnicity in China. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
28.
Jasso, G., Massey, D., Rosenzweig, M. & Smith, J. ( 2007) The New Immigrant Survey 2003: Round 1 (NIS-2003-1). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University. http://nis.princeton.edu.
29.
Kamya, H.A. ( 1997) African immigrants in the United States: The challenge for research and practice. Social Work, 42(2), 154-165.
30.
LaFromboise, T.D., Hoyt, D.R., Lisa, O. & Whitbeck, L.B. ( 2006) Family, community and school influences on resilience among American Indian adolescents in the Upper Midwest. Journal of Community Psychology, 34, 193-209.
31.
Lague, D. ( 2003) The human tide sweeps into cities. Far East Economic Review, 9 January 2003, 24-28.
32.
Laubscher, L.R. ( 1996) Toward a model of sojourner acculturation: Acculturative stress among black South Africans studying in the United States. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Science , 57, 1-A, 0102.
33.
Laursen, B., Bukowski, W.M., Aunola, K. & Nurmi, J.M. ( 2007) Friendship moderates prospective associations between social isolation and adjustment problems in young children. Child Development, 78, 1395-1404.
34.
Lin, Z. & Weng, Y.Y. ( 2004) Investigation on the psychological well-being of junior middle school students in migrant schools. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 18, 116.
35.
Luthar, S.S. & Zigler, E. ( 1991) Vulnerability and competence: A review of research on resilience in childhood. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry , 61, 6-22.
36.
Klarreich, S.H. ( 1998) Resiliency: The skills needed to move forward in a changing environment. In Handbook of Organizational Health Psychology: Programs to Make the Workplace Healthier (ed. S.H. Klarreich). Madison: Psychological Press.
37.
Michaud, P.A. ( 2006) Adolescents and risks: Why not change our paradigm? Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 481-483.
38.
Munoz, J.L.B., de Almeida, A.M.T. & Juscia, F.J. ( 2007) The students’ league of friends: Students’ social skills development for providing social and emotional support. Anales De Psicologia, 23, 185-192.
39.
Nelson, M.R. & DeBacker, T. ( 2008) Achievement motivation in adolescents: The role of peer climate and best friends. Journal of Experimental Education , 76, 170-189.
40.
Neto, F. ( 2002) Social adaptation difficulties of adolescents with immigrant backgrounds. Social Behavior and Personality, 30, 335-345.
41.
Pan, P. ( 2002) Poisoned back to poverty: As China embraces capitalism, hazards to workers rise. Washington Post, 4 August 2002, A01.1.
42.
Pantzer, K., Rajmil, L., Rajmil, C., Rajmil, F., Serra-Sutton, V., Ferrer, M., Ravens-Sieberer, U., Simeoni, M.C. & Alonso, J. ( 2006) Health-related quality of life in immigrants and native school-aged adolescents in Spain. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 60, 694-698.
43.
Papalia, D.E. & Olds, S.W. ( 1995) Human Development. New York: McGraw-Hill.
44.
Park, N. ( 2004) The role of subjective well-being in positive youth development . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 59, 1-25.
45.
Pawliuk, N., Grizenko, N., Chan-Yip, A., Gantous, P., Matthew, J. & Nguyen, D.Acculturation styles and psychological functioning in children of immigrants . American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 66, 111-121.1.
46.
Pelkonen, M., Marttunen, M., Kaprio, J., Huurre, T. & Aro. H. ( 2008) Adolescent risk factors for episode and persistent depression in adulthood. A 16-year prospective follow-up study of adolescents. Journal of Affective Disorders, 106, 123-131.
47.
Petersen, A.C. ( 1988) Adolescent development. Annual Review of Psychology, 39, 583-607.
48.
Petrocelli, J.V. ( 2003) Hierarchical multiple regression in counselling research: Common problems and possible remedies. Measurement and Evaluation in Counselling and Development, 23, 9-22.
49.
Phillips, J., Morgan, S., Cawthorne, K. & Barnett, B. ( 2008) Pilot evaluation of parent-child interaction therapy delivered in an Australian community early childhood clinic setting. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 42, 712-719.
50.
Phinney, J.S., Horenczyk, G., Liebkind, K. & Vedder, P. ( 2001) Ethnic identity, immigration and well-being: An interactional perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 493-510.
51.
Portes, A. & Rumbaut, R.G. ( 2001) Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
52.
Roberts, K.D. ( 2000) Chinese labour migration: Insights from Mexican undocumented migration to the United States. In Rural Labor Flows in China (eds. L.A. West & Y.H. Zhao). Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
53.
Rosenberg, M. ( 1979) Conceiving the Self. New York: Basic Books.
54.
Shek, D.T.L. ( 2005) Paternal and maternal influences on the psychological well-being, substance abuse, and delinquency of Chinese adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61, 219-234.
55.
Smith, E.J. ( 2006) The strength-based counseling model. The Counseling Psychologist, 34, 1-30.
56.
Stevenson, H.W. & Lee, S.Y. ( 1996) The academic achievements of Chinese students. In The Handbook of Chinese Psychology (ed. M.H. Bond). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
57.
Sun, W.P., Hu, Y., Guo, Y.Q. & Zhou, L.H. ( 2007) Psychological well-being of children of migrant workers from an elementary school in Chong Qing. Chinese Journal of School Health, 28, 68.
58.
Tam, V.C.W. & Lam, R.S.Y. ( 2005) Stress and coping among migrant and local-born adolescents in Hong Kong. Youth and Society, 36, 312-332.
59.
Tran, T.V. ( 1994) Bilingualism and subjective well-being in a sample of elderly Hispanics. Journal of Social Service Research, 20(1), 1-19.
60.
Van Petegem, K., Aelterman, A., Van Keerand, H. & Rosseel, Y. ( 2007) The influence of student characteristics and interpersonal teacher behaviour in the classroom on students’ well-being. Social Indicators Research, 85, 279-291.
61.
Willson, V.L. & Hughes, J.N. ( 2006) Retention of Hispanic/Latino students in first grade: Child, parent, teacher, school and peer predictors. Journal of School Psychology, 44, 31-49.
62.
Wong, D.F.K., He, X.S., Leung, G., Lau, Y. & Chang, Y.L. ( 2008) Mental health of migrant workers in China: Prevalence and correlates. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , 43(6), 483-489.
63.
Wu, D.Y.H. ( 1996) Chinese childhood socialization. In The Handbook of Chinese Psychology (ed. M.B. Bond). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
64.
Xie, Z.Q. & Pan, J. ( 2007) Children of migrant workers on the move between city and countryside. People’s Tribune, 16, 34-37.
65.
Xinhua News Agency (2005) Foundation to fund education of migrant workers. Xinhua News Agency , 14 January 2005.
66.
Xinhua News Agency (2004) 10% migrant children drop out of school. Xinhua News Agency , 11 June 2004. http://english.people.com.cn/200411/06/eng20041106_163015.html
67.
Yang, L.F., Wang, Y.J., Feng, X.F. & Tang, X. ( 2007) Mental health of 270 children of peasant-workers in Soochow . Chinese Journal of Social Medicine, 24, 132-134.
68.
You, S.Y., Furlong, M.J., Felix, E., Sharkey, J.D. & Tanigawa, D. ( 2008) Relations among school connectedness, hope, life satisfaction and bully victimization. Psychology in Schools, 45, 446-460.
69.
Young, J.F., Berenson, K., Cohen, P. & Garcia, J. ( 2005) The role of parent and peer support in predicting adolescent depression: A longitudinal community sample. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 15(4), 407-423.
70.
Zhang, K.H. & Song, S.F. ( 2003) Rural-urban migration and urbanization in China: Evidence from time-series and cross-section analysis. China Economic Review, 14, 386-400.
